Things have been a little slow in this group so let's spice things up. Tony
F. got me thinking about really rigged stereos. I bet the installers here
have seen some real "Rube Goldberg" specials come into their stores! Here
is what Tony did (Tony, I hope you don't mind):

You wanna talk CHEAP? When I was a teenager, my best friend and I had this
wonderful idea. We took a 15" Radio Shack woofer and one of the those
large, heavy-cardboard cylinders (I think they used them to pour concrete or
something like that). Anyway, it was about 15" in diameter.... Yep, we
duct-taped that sucker right to the top of the cylinder, and used a piece of
wood along the bottom and made our very own ghetto-bazooka tube! You
woudn't believe how LOUD that sucker was!!! Oh man...I haven't thought
about that for YEARS!!!! LOL

Now this isn't car audio, but when I was 14 I got my hands on an Ampeg
bass-guitar amplifier. It was huge and had a tube power-amp head and a box
with two 15" woofers in it. I connected it to my otherwise very modest
Sanyo (yes, Sanyo) stereo with integrated cassette player. The Sanyo could
not have been more than 20 watts per channel (at best!), but BOY OH BOY,
with the addition of that Ampeg, you could hear my system from literally
three blocks away. I LOVED IT, and it fueled my love for bass ever since.

MOSFET

OMG Where to start... BrandonB has had so many in the past I don't even KNOW
which one to pick from...

The Blankets for sealing the air in... the Tow Rope to hold a box vertical
for a competition... wow... Ill have to think for abit on this one.


/me ducks from the incoming hit

-Brandenn


"MOSFET" wrote in message
...
Things have been a little slow in this group so let's spice things up.
Tony F. got me thinking about really rigged stereos. I bet the installers
here have seen some real "Rube Goldberg" specials come into their stores!
Here is what Tony did (Tony, I hope you don't mind):

You wanna talk CHEAP? When I was a teenager, my best friend and I had
this
wonderful idea. We took a 15" Radio Shack woofer and one of the those
large, heavy-cardboard cylinders (I think they used them to pour concrete
or
something like that). Anyway, it was about 15" in diameter.... Yep, we
duct-taped that sucker right to the top of the cylinder, and used a piece
of
wood along the bottom and made our very own ghetto-bazooka tube! You
woudn't believe how LOUD that sucker was!!! Oh man...I haven't thought
about that for YEARS!!!! LOL

Now this isn't car audio, but when I was 14 I got my hands on an Ampeg
bass-guitar amplifier. It was huge and had a tube power-amp head and a
box with two 15" woofers in it. I connected it to my otherwise very
modest Sanyo (yes, Sanyo) stereo with integrated cassette player. The
Sanyo could not have been more than 20 watts per channel (at best!), but
BOY OH BOY, with the addition of that Ampeg, you could hear my system from
literally three blocks away. I LOVED IT, and it fueled my love for bass
ever since.

MOSFET

I was very proud of my first speakers I ever installed. It was a 1977 Honda
Accord and I put Realistic 6x9 speakers in the front doors. Those suckers
had these HUGE grills that stuck way out from the door. Once I got
everything put back together, I couldn't roll the windows up or down because
the roller handle would hit the grills. I had to put the handle on, roll it
down a little ways, take it off and re-position it, and then roll it down a
little more...


Tony


--
2001 Nissan Maxima SE Anniversary Edition
Clarion DRZ9255 Head Unit, Phoenix Gold ZX475ti, ZX450 and Xenon X1200.1
Amplifiers, Dynaudio System 360 Tri-Amped In Front and Focal 130HCs For Rear
Fill, Image Dynamics IDMAX10 D4 v.3 Sub

2001 Chevy S10 ZR2
Pioneer DEH-P9600MP Head Unit, Phoenix Gold Ti500.4 Amp, Focal 165HC
Speakers & Image Dynamics ID8 D4 v.3 Sub

I had to put the handle on, roll it
down a little ways, take it off and re-position it, and then roll it down
a little more...

LOL The things we do for sound!

That reminded me of MY first system. I was poor and my first set of wheels
was a '68 Chevy pickup (this is in 1984). I "won" this cassette stereo with
speakers at our local fair. This had to be THE MOST PATHETIC excuse for car
audio known to 20th century man. But as I had nothing but the stock AM
radio in the truck I naturally put it in. The thing I rememebr most is the
6X9 speakers. The cab of this truck is just sheet metal on the inside and I
just stuck the speakers on the walls of the cab using the magnets, no
enclosure at all (I didn't know back then why an enclosure was necessary).
It actually all worked, but of course it sounded LIKE CRAP.

MOSFET

"The cab of this truck is just sheet metal on the inside and I just stuck
the speakers on the walls of the cab using the magnets"

That's just mag-nificant!!

Tony


--
2001 Nissan Maxima SE Anniversary Edition
Clarion DRZ9255 Head Unit, Phoenix Gold ZX475ti, ZX450 and Xenon X1200.1
Amplifiers, Dynaudio System 360 Tri-Amped In Front and Focal 130HCs For Rear
Fill, Image Dynamics IDMAX10 D4 v.3 Sub

2001 Chevy S10 ZR2
Pioneer DEH-P9600MP Head Unit, Phoenix Gold Ti500.4 Amp, Focal 165HC
Speakers & Image Dynamics ID8 D4 v.3 Sub

In article ,
"MOSFET" wrote:

Things have been a little slow in this group so let's spice things up. Tony
F. got me thinking about really rigged stereos. I bet the installers here
have seen some real "Rube Goldberg" specials come into their stores! Here
is what Tony did (Tony, I hope you don't mind):

You wanna talk CHEAP? When I was a teenager, my best friend and I had this
wonderful idea. We took a 15" Radio Shack woofer and one of the those
large, heavy-cardboard cylinders (I think they used them to pour concrete or
something like that). Anyway, it was about 15" in diameter.... Yep, we
duct-taped that sucker right to the top of the cylinder, and used a piece of
wood along the bottom and made our very own ghetto-bazooka tube! You
woudn't believe how LOUD that sucker was!!! Oh man...I haven't thought
about that for YEARS!!!! LOL

Now this isn't car audio, but when I was 14 I got my hands on an Ampeg
bass-guitar amplifier. It was huge and had a tube power-amp head and a box
with two 15" woofers in it. I connected it to my otherwise very modest
Sanyo (yes, Sanyo) stereo with integrated cassette player. The Sanyo could
not have been more than 20 watts per channel (at best!), but BOY OH BOY,
with the addition of that Ampeg, you could hear my system from literally
three blocks away. I LOVED IT, and it fueled my love for bass ever since.

MOSFET




In the early days, 12" subs in 5gallon buckets. 12ga main power wire to
the amp. Bridged down to who knows what. Ignorance is bliss.

--
Cyrus

*coughcasaucedoprodigynetcough*

.. 12ga main power wire to
the amp. Bridged down to who knows what.

I remember when I had my first REAL system put in my car in 1990 and
Magnolia Hi-Fi (a very reputable Audio store in the Pacific Northwest) used
12 or 14 (it just looked like speakers wire) gauge power wire to feed my RF
Punch 75. These days, I don't think they ever use anything less than 8
gauge.

MOSFET

I cut up the ground traces and rewired it for a star
ground. One big heatsink was a voltage tripler to convert 0V/+12V to
-12V/+24V. Another heatsink was a simple class B amp with terrible bias
control. It took me about 4 circuit revisions to create a circuit that
didn't have bias problems when operating from 20F to 200F.

You did this all when you were 16? What are you a friggin' genius?
Needless to say, I'm very impressed at your ingenuity.

MOSFET

I remember going into Magnolia HiFi and droooooling when I was younger.
They had some pretty good stuff. Are they still around?

Tony


--
2001 Nissan Maxima SE Anniversary Edition
Clarion DRZ9255 Head Unit, Phoenix Gold ZX475ti, ZX450 and Xenon X1200.1
Amplifiers, Dynaudio System 360 Tri-Amped In Front and Focal 130HCs For Rear
Fill, Image Dynamics IDMAX10 D4 v.3 Sub

2001 Chevy S10 ZR2
Pioneer DEH-P9600MP Head Unit, Phoenix Gold Ti500.4 Amp, Focal 165HC
Speakers & Image Dynamics ID8 D4 v.3 Sub

I remember going into Magnolia HiFi and droooooling when I was younger.
They had some pretty good stuff. Are they still around?

You bet! They're still an awesome store. I've bought pretty much all my
home gear there (Denon AVR-3600, M&K MX-105 subwoofer for instance). They
carry stuff a cut above your typical audio/video chain superstore.

MOSFET

Damnit. It was towels, not blankets. Get it right! . For those not
familiar, several years ago I got "big" into trying to make a
competition system. The problem is that I had jack for cash. I made an 8
ft^3 box for 4 MTX 8000 subwoofers, each in their own 2ft^3 slot-ported
chamber. All the ports met at the middle. It was thin enough to slid
into the backseat of my 97 Ford Contour with the rear seat out. Once it
was in, there were pieces that would be bolted on to follow the contour
of the roof and the doors to make a removeable wall. Because it was
meant to be removed, I just used towels stuffed into the cracks between
the doors, roof, and bottom, and the box and bolted on pieces.

I think it is actually what prompted me to think about this 16 cheap
subs in the first place. When I drove up the line to compete at a local
event, everyone was laughing. The windows weren't even tinted so
everyone could see it looking ghetto-fabulous. The judge got it, started
my 30 second run, and I hit 142dB. He looked like that's what he was
expecting. I then realized I had ATT enabled on the HU. Hit the button
and the judges head flew forward, the meter hit 153.6, and the judge
looked at me and said, incredulously: "were you just ****in with me or
what?".

I had the highest score of the day and took home my first 1st-place
trophy. The guy in a Blazer with 9 15" RF subs and his very
professionaly installed system with 4 yellow tops and nice system only
got 149. He was ****ed as he got 2nd. I beat him again at another event
a month or two later . I got 2nd at that one though. Lost to a guy
that went to dBDrag World Finals in Nashville with around 162dB.

Brandonb
- Ignoring the tow strap comment... "These are not the droids you're
looking for."

SMACK

Branden Nelsen wrote:
OMG Where to start... BrandonB has had so many in the past I don't even KNOW
which one to pick from...

The Blankets for sealing the air in... the Tow Rope to hold a box vertical
for a competition... wow... Ill have to think for abit on this one.


/me ducks from the incoming hit

-Brandenn

I remember when they used to carry a/d/s
speakers back in the day. I also remember thinking how nice they were and
how I couldn't afford them. Then, when I could finally afford the price
tag & went in to get some,

That's SO funny because that happened to me. I was going to upgrade my car
speakers in '94 so I went to Magnolia Hi-Fi and the ADS were CLEARLY the
best, but so damn expensive!!! I ended up going with Boston Pro Series but
I later regretted not spending the money on the ADS as the Bostons had a
tendency to fatigue the ears after extended listening (I'm sure it was their
titanium tweeters, it's interesting to note that they later switched to
aluminum). In 2001, I again wanted to upgrade my speakers but, like you, I
found that Magnolia had stopped carrying ADS. I ended up going with MB
Quart Ref. Premium series bought at Car Toys (now THEY know how to make
titanium tweeters!).

MOSFET

"justin time" wrote in message
...

I knew a guy with a CD walkman spliced to two amps, one running some small
mains on the back seat without a box and a 15'' sub screwed to a tire as a
box.

Congratulations! I think we have a winner!

MOSFET